1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a compressor, and, more particularly, to a smart control valve for compressors that is capable of easily accomplishing compression and communication in a compression chamber of a cylinder, without performing the repetitive on/off operation of the compressor, to change the capacity of the compressor.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a refrigerating apparatus or an air conditioning apparatus, such as a refrigerator or an air conditioner, changes the state of refrigerant according to the principle of a refrigerating cycle to consecutively perform compressing, condensing, expanding and evaporating processes to maintain the interior of the refrigerating apparatus in a refrigerated state or the interior of a room where the air conditioning apparatus is installed in an air-conditioned state. To this end, the refrigerating apparatus or the air conditioning apparatus includes a compressor, a condenser, an expansion mechanism, and an evaporator.
The compressor serves to compress low-temperature and low-pressure refrigerant gas introduced into the compressor from the evaporator to change the low-temperature and low-pressure refrigerant gas into high-temperature and high-pressure refrigerant gas. Based on the structure, compressors are classified into an open-type compressor and a sealed-type compressor. The sealed-type compressor, including a drive unit and a compression unit mounted in a hermetically sealed container, is usually used in the refrigerator or the air conditioner. Based on the compression method, sealed-type compressors are classified into a reciprocating compressor, a centrifugal compressor, a rotary compressor, and a scroll compressor.
Meanwhile, an energy-saving operation of a refrigerating apparatus or an air conditioning apparatus, such as a refrigerator or an air conditioner, is generally performed as follows. When the temperature in the refrigerator or the temperature in a room where the air conditioner is installed reaches a predetermined temperature, the operation of the compressor of the refrigerator or the air conditioner is stopped. When the temperature in the refrigerator or the temperature in the room exceeds the predetermined temperature, on the other hand, the operation of the compressor of the refrigerator or the air conditioner is initiated. In this way, the operation of the compressor is repetitively turned on and off. Generally, power consumption when the operation of the compressor is initiated is greater than power consumption when the compressor is normally operated. Furthermore, interference between the compressed gas in the compressor and the parts of the compressor is caused due to abrupt interruption of the compressor and initiation of the compressor, and therefore, the parts of the compressor are prematurely worn, which reduces the service life of the compressor.
For this reason, it is required to change the capacity of the compressor without performing repetitive on/off operation of the compressor as described above. An inverter system may be used to change the capacity of the compressor. In the inverter system, the number of rotations of the motor is controlled to change the capacity of the compressor. However, the inverter system has problems in that expensive electric circuit control devices and relevant parts are needed. Consequently, the manufacturing costs of the compressor are increased, and therefore, the competitiveness of the product is decreased.